i'm worried they'll start making user unfriendly changes, like more ads, to meet investor demands for increased profits. overall it's a great product which i use everyday and i'm happy for them.
Given their per user pricing model, who's going to pay for this for any given community? Discord is mostly popular in communities where self-organized funding would be realistic.
Zulip's product lead here. Communities are eligible for a free Community plan if they self-host, and there are discounts and sponsorships available for Zulip Cloud as well.
unfortunately, the user-unfriendly changes started years ago, especially around 2023. Having used it since 2016, you can tell that post covid is when they shifted from consumer-focused to revenue-focused; just look at how many people are outraged by the appearance of embedded ads, game "quests", nitro feature-stealing, discord profile purchasable customizations, and (one that not many people talk about) trendy corporate habits like year recaps and T&C changes.